For The Absolute Best Etouffee, Patience Is A Virtue

Etouffee might sound fancy, but any home cook should be able to pull off the dish. You'll obviously need the right ingredients like bell peppers and onion — but there's also a virtue that comes into play during the process. There are differences between Cajun and Creole cuisines, and etouffee falls in both categories. Despite which cuisine inspires your homemade etouffee, patience will go a long way.

When you check out Tasting Table's best etouffee recipe from recipe developer Keith Kamikawa, you'll notice it only requires an hour of cooking time. That's not as quick as making a one-sheet dinner, but it's not incredibly long either. And yes, you'll have to have patience to pull off the roux, but the virtue is more essential a little later.

"Letting etouffee, like most stews, sit for a few days does let the flavors meld, making the flavors more rich," Kamikawa says. "If you have leftovers, by all means keep them for later, but eating fresh etouffee is wonderful. You can always make extra and plan on keeping some later in the week for meal planning." For this reason, you might want to start your pot of etouffee in the morning so the flavors have plenty of time to meld before dinner. But, your leftovers will be even more flavorful for days to come.

As Keith Kamikawa explains, etouffee gets better with time just like other stews and soups. It might seem like culinary magic, but there's a little science behind this. When the leftover etouffee, or another dish, sits in the fridge overnight, the ingredients are basically marinating in the broth, seasonings, and aromatics, which enhances the flavor. It's just like how meats like beef and chicken take on flavors in marinades. And if there are meats with lots of collagen, it will break down in the fridge and absorb even more flavor. All of this is to say that when you eat etouffee the next day, you're tasting all the flavors melded together rather than each spice and ingredient separately.

Now, etouffee often contains some sort of shellfish like shrimp or crawfish, so you can't keep the leftovers in the fridge forever. According to some recipes, etouffee should be eaten within three days for the freshest flavors. Cooked shellfish in general should be consumed within four days, so any longer might be a risk. Should you still have a craving after the etouffee is eaten up, we have you covered with 14 flavorful Cajun recipes from hushpuppies to gumbo.